Happy New Year.
Happy Friday! And for many of you, the first Friday officially back to work. If you're reading this, you made it through another year. You're still standing. You're still building. That's worth acknowledging before we dive into the work ahead.
This week's roundup is focused on a theme that's been coming up in every conversation I've had lately: how do we build businesses that don't require us to be superhuman? How do we create systems that work when we're not working? How do we buy back our time so we can actually use it on the things that matter?
Let's dig in.
If you only read one business book this year, make it this one.
Dan Martell's "Buy Back Your Time" is the antidote to hustle culture. It's the book I wish I'd read before I burned out trying to do everything myself. It's the framework I'm using to rebuild my business in a way that doesn't require me to sacrifice my life to grow it.
OVERVIEW
The core premise is simple but revolutionary: your time is your most valuable asset, and you should be ruthlessly focused on buying it back. Not by working less, but by investing in the people, systems, and processes that free you to work on what only you can do.
Martell introduces the "Buyback Principle": for every dollar you earn, invest a percentage back into buying back your time. Hire an assistant. Outsource the tasks that drain you. Build systems that remove you from the day-to-day.
The book walks through his "Buyback Loop": audit your time, identify what to delegate, hire the right people, train them effectively, and reinvest the time you've bought back into higher-leverage activities.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
THE REPLACEMENT LADDER Don't just hire for tasks. Hire to replace yourself. Start with administrative tasks, then move to delivery, then to management, then to leadership. Each step up the ladder buys back more of your time and increases your leverage.
THE 10-80-10 RULE You do the first 10% (set the vision), your team does the 80% (execute), and you do the final 10% (review and refine). This keeps you involved in the critical parts while removing you from the grind.
THE BUYBACK RATE Calculate how much your time is worth, then ruthlessly eliminate or delegate anything below that rate. If your time is worth $500/hour, you shouldn't be doing $25/hour tasks. Ever.
THE PAIN LINE Identify the tasks that drain your energy, even if you're good at them. These are the first things to delegate, because they're costing you more than money. They're costing you momentum.
THE PRELOADED YEAR Plan your year in advance. Block out vacation time, family time, and strategic thinking time before you schedule anything else. Protect your time like you protect your money.
This isn't a book about working less. It's a book about working on what matters. It's about building a business that serves your life instead of consuming it.
If you're starting the year feeling like you're already behind, this book will show you how to get ahead by doing less.
ARTICLES WORTH YOUR TIME
This article breaks down why delegation isn't just about offloading tasks. It's about building a culture of ownership.
OVERVIEW: The piece explores how effective delegation creates leaders at every level of your organization. When you delegate decision-making authority (not just tasks), you're not just freeing up your time. You're developing your team's capacity to think strategically and act independently.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Delegation without authority is just task assignment. Real delegation includes the power to make decisions.
The best leaders delegate outcomes, not processes. Tell people what needs to happen, not how to do it.
Delegation is a skill that requires practice. Start small, provide feedback, and gradually increase the scope of what you hand off.
This one hits close to home. It's about identifying the constraint that's actually limiting your growth, not just the one that's most visible.
OVERVIEW: The article walks through how bottlenecks shift as your business grows. In the early stage, you're the bottleneck because you're doing everything. In the growth stage, your systems (or lack thereof) become the bottleneck. In the scale stage, your leadership team becomes the bottleneck. Each stage requires a different solution.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The bottleneck is rarely where you think it is. It's usually one level deeper than the obvious problem.
Solving the wrong bottleneck makes things worse, not better. You end up optimizing the wrong part of the system.
Growth requires you to constantly identify and eliminate the current constraint, knowing that a new one will immediately appear.
A practical guide to delegation that focuses on the systems and frameworks that make it work.
OVERVIEW: This article provides a step-by-step approach to delegation that goes beyond "just hire someone." It covers how to identify what to delegate, how to document processes, how to train effectively, and how to measure results.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Document before you delegate. If you can't explain how to do something, you can't effectively hand it off.
Delegation is an investment, not an expense. The upfront time you spend training will pay dividends for years.
The goal isn't perfection. It's progress. Your team doesn't need to do things exactly like you. They need to achieve the same outcome.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK: HOW I BUILT THIS WITH GUY RAZ - MERIDITH BAER HOME
Listen on NPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
This episode features Meridith Baer, who built a home staging empire from scratch. What makes it relevant to this week's theme is how she talks about scaling by letting go.
OVERVIEW: Baer started by staging homes herself. As demand grew, she had to learn to trust others to execute her vision. The episode walks through how she built systems, trained her team, and created a brand that could scale beyond her personal involvement.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Your business can't scale if it requires your personal touch on every project.
Building a brand is about creating consistency, not perfection. Your team needs clear standards, not micromanagement.
The hardest part of scaling isn't finding customers. It's letting go of control.
MUSIC TRACK OF THE WEEK: LAST ONE STANDING
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5W8HXMOMLtXLz0RGKUtnlZ?si=021efedf018547c2
This track has been on repeat this week. It's about resilience, about being the one who keeps going when everyone else has quit. It's a good reminder as we start the year: success isn't about being the smartest or the fastest. It's about being the one who doesn't give up.
WHAT I'M WORKING ON
REBUILDING MY CONTENT SYSTEMS I'm implementing a new workflow that removes me from the day-to-day content creation process. The goal is to move from "I create everything" to "I provide direction and review final output." It's uncomfortable, but necessary.
CLIENT ONBOARDING AUTOMATION I'm building a system that handles the first 30 days of client onboarding without requiring my direct involvement. This includes welcome sequences, initial strategy sessions, and progress check-ins. The framework is there. Now it's about trusting the team to run it.
TOOL I'M USING: MAKE.COM
I've been diving deeper into Make.com for workflow automation. The visual interface makes it easy to build complex automations without writing code. This week I built an automation that takes client intake forms, creates project folders, sends welcome emails, and schedules kickoff calls. All without me touching it.
If you're still doing repetitive tasks manually, Make.com is worth exploring. It's not about replacing people. It's about freeing them (and you) to focus on work that actually requires human judgment.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The theme this week is clear: you can't scale yourself. You can only scale your systems.
As we start this new year, the question isn't "How can I do more?" It's "How can I build a business that needs me less?"
That's not about being lazy. It's about being strategic. It's about recognizing that your time is finite and your business's potential isn't.
The businesses that win in 2026 won't be the ones with the hardest-working founders. They'll be the ones with the best systems.
Start building yours.
One step, one day. Grace over guilt.
RESOURCES
Book: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Back-Your-Time-Successful/dp/0593544919
Article: The Power of Letting Go https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylrobinson/2025/03/21/the-power-of-letting-go-why-delegation-drives-organizational-success/
Article: Maximizing Productivity Through Smart Delegation https://cheaperteam.com/maximizing-productivity-through-smart-delegation/
Podcast: How I Built This - Meridith Baer Home https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
Music: Last One Standing on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/5W8HXMOMLtXLz0RGKUtnlZ?si=021efedf018547c2